NYC's 8 Lease Disclosures (and What Happens When You Skip One)

This is a general overview. It's not legal advice. NYC and NY State landlord-tenant law changes frequently — consult a licensed New York attorney before relying on any of this for a specific lease. See our legal disclaimer.

Most New York City landlords know they need a few disclosures attached to leases. Few know exactly which ones, which apply to which units, and what specifically goes wrong when one is missing. The list is longer than people think — and the consequences of skipping a mandatory one range from "minor fine" to "you can't recover possession in housing court."

Here's the 2026 list, the statute behind each, who it applies to, and the realistic enforcement risk.

1. Annual Bed Bug Disclosure

Statute: NY Multiple Dwelling Law § 27-2018.1 (Form NYC-CHPD-B) Who: Every NYC residential building owner, at lease signing and annually thereafter What it requires: Disclosure to the tenant of any bed bug infestation history in the unit and the building over the past year

What goes wrong: The civil penalty caps at $750-$1,000 in DOB filings, but the bigger downside is in housing court. Tenants who haven't received the disclosure have successfully used the omission as a defense against eviction proceedings, particularly in non-payment cases where they claim the unit had pest issues. A missing bed bug disclosure isn't always fatal — but it's a free win for tenant counsel.

2. Window Guard Rider

Statute: NYC Health Code § 131.15 Who: Every multiple-dwelling unit (3+ units in the building) where a child age 10 or younger resides — and every lease must offer to install guards, regardless of occupancy What it requires: A signed rider acknowledging the tenant's right to window guards if a child 10 or younger lives in or visits the unit regularly

What goes wrong: This is a HPD violation. Worse, if a child is injured falling from an un-guarded window in a unit that should have had guards installed, the landlord faces civil liability that the omission of the rider makes very hard to defend. The rider is one page. There is no excuse to skip it.

3. Sprinkler System Disclosure

Statute: NY General Obligations Law § 5-3001 Who: All residential leases in New York State What it requires: Disclosure of whether the unit has a working sprinkler system, and if so, when it was last maintained

What goes wrong: Missing this disclosure can void the lease at the tenant's option (per the statute's terms). In a fire-risk dispute, the absence of a documented disclosure also undermines a landlord's insurance defense.

4. Indoor Allergen Hazard Notice

Statute: NYC Local Law 55 of 2018 Who: All NYC residential rental buildings What it requires: Notice to tenants of the landlord's obligation to inspect for and remediate indoor allergen hazards (mold, mice, cockroaches) at least once a year, with the right of a tenant to request an inspection at any time

What goes wrong: HPD violations, civil penalty up to $2,000 per violation. The bigger risk is in personal injury claims (asthma exacerbations, etc.) where the tenant can demonstrate the landlord failed to provide the required notice.

5. Stove Knob Cover Notice

Statute: NYC Local Law 117 of 2023 Who: NYC residential units with gas stoves where a child age 5 or younger resides What it requires: Notice to the tenant of the landlord's obligation to provide stove knob covers on request

What goes wrong: This is a newer requirement (took effect 2024) and enforcement is still ramping. But it's a child-safety statute, so the same dynamic as window guards applies — the absence of the disclosure becomes very hard to defend if an injury occurs.

6. Landlord Identification Disclosure

Statute: NY Multiple Dwelling Law § 325 Who: Every multiple-dwelling owner What it requires: Disclosure of the name and address of the building owner (or designated agent) for service of process

What goes wrong: Without this, the tenant can't be sure who to serve in a legal dispute, and certain proceedings against the tenant can be paused or dismissed while the question of proper notice is sorted out. This is the disclosure most often missing from lease packets from one-off self-managed landlords. The fix is trivial — add a paragraph to the lease — but the omission is recurring.

7. Good Cause Eviction Notice (recommended but not mandatory)

Statute: NY Real Property Law § 232, as amended by Chapter 760 of the Laws of 2024 Who: Buildings that aren't exempt from the Good Cause Eviction law (most NYC buildings 6+ units, with some carve-outs) What it requires: Disclosure that the lease is subject to Good Cause Eviction protections, which limit a landlord's ability to refuse renewal or significantly raise rent

What goes wrong: This isn't mandatory in the same way the others are — your lease is still enforceable without it. But if you try to terminate or non-renew a tenant in a Good Cause-eligible building, the tenant can use the absence of disclosure as evidence the landlord wasn't honoring the law in good faith. It's defensive paperwork. Skip it at your own risk.

8. Recycling Disclosure (recommended)

Statute: NYC Administrative Code § 16-308 and DSNY rules Who: All NYC buildings with 4 or more units What it requires: Notice to tenants of recycling and waste sorting requirements (paper, metal/glass/plastic, organics where applicable)

What goes wrong: DSNY fines for non-compliance accumulate quickly — the disclosure doesn't shield the landlord from fines for actual non-compliance, but it does establish that the tenant was put on notice, which matters in disputes over who's responsible for the violation.

The lead paint disclosure (federal — easy to forget for buildings built pre-1978)

Not on the NYC list above, but worth flagging because it catches first-time landlords: under federal Title X of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 (and EPA implementing regulations), every lease for a unit in a building constructed before 1978 must include a lead paint disclosure and an EPA-approved pamphlet. The federal penalty schedule allows up to $19,507 per violation. This is the disclosure most likely to trigger a federal-level penalty rather than a city-level fine.

How to handle this without a paralegal

The honest answer is that managing eight separate disclosures per lease, per state and city, is tedious. It's the kind of work that gets dropped when a landlord is moving fast — and then surfaces years later in a housing court file.

Inside Proprietio, every lease is evaluated against state and city rules at the moment of signing. The Compliance Disclosures section on the lease detail page shows what's attached (signed, pending, not applicable) per disclosure. If a mandatory item is still pending and you try to send the lease for e-signature, we block the action and tell you which disclosures need to be resolved first. You can override with a flag if you're handling them out-of-band on paper.

The point isn't that the software replaces a lawyer. The point is that the standard, well-known disclosures don't fall through the cracks on a Tuesday morning when you're juggling four other things.

If you're a NYC landlord and you're not sure which disclosures you've actually delivered to which tenants — that's a checklist worth running before your next renewal cycle. Most landlords find at least one gap.

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